By Michelle Eigenheer–

Lately, it’s felt like construction projects are all over campus. The constant banging of machinery and blocked streets has many University of Louisville students, including myself, in a permanent flow of aggressive mood swings.

The expansion of the Speed Art Museum slows down both road and foot traffic on the west side of campus. In addition to being irritating, the expansion called for the demolition of Robbins Hall, a historic building that housed the Disabilities Resource Center and the Interpreter Training Program.  ese programs have since moved to Stevenson Hall. Robbins Hall was built while construction of the museum’s original form took place so that its benefactor, wife of the late J.B. Speed, could live there and oversee the museum’s birth and growth. In place of this piece of the University of Louisville’s history will presumably sit a plot of grass, part of the museum’s art garden.

Other than this construction, the repairs from the series of water-main breaks are creating traffic issues in front of the Floyd Street Parking Garage. No one likes to sit at a light for ten minutes just so that they can get off campus. With an entire lane, and sometimes two lanes, blocked o to repair a problem that really never should have happened, this issue gets more irritating and dangerous by the day.

There are a lot of people who get impatient and run the light so that they can turn left and get to the interstate. With the activity there being so unpredictable, this is a seemingly harmless act that can turn deadly in an instant.

Luckily, work on Cardinal Towne was  nished before fall classes began, so the street issues haven’t really a ected this academic year. It’s a wonder why the University didn’t make a more concentrated effort to have the Speed Museum construction  nished in a timely and appropriate of a manner. Hopefully this all dies down soon enough. Most of all, work on those water main breaks will hopefully be finished as soon as possible in order to eliminate the traffic problem on Floyd Street.

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Photo: Erin Standridge/The Louisville Cardinal